The Apple Watch
What are potential
repercussions of the
following capability of
the new Apple Watch?
Today’s objective: The
student will be able to
craft a rhetorical précis
after annotating a
rhetorical analysis
prompt.
Today’s objective: The student will be able to craft a rhetorical précis after annotating
a rhetorical analysis prompt.
Please create the following chart on a piece of paper:
I. What do each of the following characters embody?
Character
Name?
Rev. Wilson
X
Governor
X
Chillingworth
Hibbins
X
Pearl
Hester
X
Dimmesdale
X
II. Symbols
III. Scaffold Scenes
Adj./ What do they embody?
Attitude toward other
character/important plot points
AP Rhetorical Analysis
Objective: The student will be able to craft a
rhetorical précis after annotating a rhetorical
analysis prompt.
Schedule
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Warm-up (10 minutes)
Finish analyzing essays for Welty (10)
Take précis notes for Welty (10)
BAT and annotate Banneker essay (15)
Write rhetorical précis for Banneker (20)
Talk about parts of a strong essay (10)
Look at first essay (10)
Label parts of the essay (5)
Read the rest of the essays and discuss (20)
Précis Formula
1) Name of author, type of document, (date) “Title”
argues (a description of the author’s major purpose).
2) A couple of rhetorical terms and, in brief, how they
function to convey meaning.
3) Describe the organization, or structure of the
speech, and explain why it is particularly effective for
this audience
4) Writing with (two tone words), author’s name
appeals to (a description of the two audiences and why
the message appeals to them).
Rhetorical Précis example for Eudora
Welty’s “One Writer’s Beginnings”
1) In Eudora Welty’s autobiographical essay “One Writer’s
Beginnings”(1984), she argues that her love for writing
began with her love of reading and that two powerful
female role models influenced her to become a voracious
reader. 2) Using figurative language, repetition, and
powerful diction, Welty crafts a vivid description of the
formative influences that inspired her to create her own
world of words. 3) By juxtaposing the severe Mrs.
Calloway and her own mother, Welty shows that
inspiration can take both a positive and negative form. 4)
Writing with a reflective nostalgia, Welty appeals to her
public of aspiring writers and also to hopeful students of
literature everywhere.
2010 AP Rhetorical Analysis Prompt
First draft!
(I am incredibly grateful for YOU and your example!)
Quick revision:
Final draft:
t
n
Another Banneker Précis
1)Benjamin Banneker’s persuasive letter (1791)
asserts that slavery is an injustice that Thomas Jefferson
should work to eradicate. 2) Banneker uses emotional
diction and structured metaphors which juxtapose the
condition of the slaves with the colonial opposition to a
“state of servitude” under England. 3) Banneker’s
command of parallelism and Biblical allusion further force
Jefferson to visualize the injustice of slavery and persuade
the secretary that he should free his slaves. 4) Writing
with reverence, Banneker’s eloquent appeal not only
reminds Jefferson of God’s watchful eyes but serves in
contemporary times to remind Americans of our own
shameful past.
Ps. A structural metaphor is…
Definition
A structural metaphor is a conventional metaphor in which one concept is
understood and expressed in terms of another structured, sharply defined
concept.
Here are some examples of the argument-as-war structural metaphor:
•Your claims are indefensible.
•He attacked every weak point in my argument.
•His criticisms were right on target.
•I demolished his argument.
Let’s now write an essay!
Here is one possible formula:
I.
Introduction
-Thesis is at the end of the paragraph
-The rhetorical précis will be introduced block-day
II.
Body Paragraphs 1-3 (organized by strategy in chronological
order)
-Topic sentence
-Context
-Concrete detail (integrated quote)
-Commentary (1:3 ratio)
-Context
-Concrete detail (integrated quote)
-Commentary (1:3 ratio)
-Conclusion/transition
III. Conclusion
Chronological Order
I. Intro paragraph: You may use our précis or just start with an
extended observation followed by a thesis.
II. Body paragraph: Analysis of all devices and appeals in the first 1/3 of
the essay
III. Body paragraph: Analysis of all devices and appeals in the middle of
the essay
IV. Body paragraph: A discussion of the end of the essay including an
analysis of the conclusion.
V. Conclusion: Restate your thesis (OR bring your last paragraph to the
end of the essay to make a concluding statement)
2013’s AP graders advice for the
Rhetorical Analysis Prompt
The analysis question, provides an opportunity for
students to demonstrate their practical understanding of
rhetorical analysis. Like the synthesis question, the
analysis question requires students to integrate reading
and writing skills. Rhetorical reading entails
comprehending both the meaning and purpose of an
author’s argument and its intended audience(s), and
students are asked to demonstrate rhetorical
comprehension of a text by explaining how the author’s
rhetorical decisions promote or hinder successful
accomplishment of the purpose. In short, rhetorical
analysis means explaining not only what writers are
saying but also why and how they are saying it.
Rhetorical Analysis = How, Why, So What
HOW?
What techniques doe the writer choose to present
the material?
WHY ?
Are the choices effective and appropriate for the
intended audience?
SO WHAT?
What is accomplished or created?
Speaker
Rhetorical devices/
strategies/
E,P, and L
(how?)
Audience (why?)
Purpose (so what?)
In his letter to Thomas Jefferson (1791), Benjamin
Banneker argues that slavery is morally wrong and
that America needs to change this vile tradition. He
uses juxtaposition to compare free men to slaves
and uses allusion to the Bible and Americans’
religion to appeal to Jefferson’s conscience, while
also intelligently using parallel syntax and
polysyndeton to highlight free mens’ and slaves
similar attitudes toward freedom. With
desperation and passion, Banneker stresses that
slavery should be abolished in hopes that whites
and blacks could all be free, both in 1791 and in the
future.
Banneker starts off his essay “entreating” Jefferson to
reflect on America’s struggle for independence from the
“arms and tyranny of the British Crown.” Benjamin
logically asserts that if the colonists had a right to
freedom, then slaves should also have the same right. He
uses the phrase, “State of Servitude” to compare the
colonists to slaves, purposefully capitalizing the words in
order to emphasize this connection. Benjamin also
alludes to “Heaven” because he wants Jefferson to realize
that the slaves truly are deserving of “freedom and
tranquility” which was “mercifully received” from
Heaven. Slaves were taught the grace of God even back in
1791, and Banneker utilizes this to prove that slaves were
allowed to receive the “blessing of Heaven” just like
Americans were.
Banneker very astutely remarks that Jefferson understands the
“injustice of the state of slavery”, continuing with his assertion
that the colonists could understand the right and need for
freedom. However, he now accuses Jefferson of his scandalous
decree by alluding to the Declaration itself, where Jefferson
himself wrote that, “all men are created equal”. This allusion
very effectively points to the mistaken mindset of the colonists
who refuse to acknowledge slaves’ right for freedom.
Banneker impressively uses Jefferson’s own knowledge and
feelings against slavery, which establishes ethos, or his
credibility, not through his own knowledge, but through
Jefferson’s. This witty use of ethos only strengthens Banneker’s
argument because it effectively convinces all readers, including
Jefferson, that slavery is logically wrong.
In addition, Banneker asserts that slavery is morally wrong through
polysyndeton combined with strong adjectives with the purpose of
appealing to all readers’ consciences. Banneker writes a long-winded
sentence explaining the colonists’ realization of their rights for
freedom and confirming their belief in God’s “equal and impartial
distribution” of these precious rights. Since most people value
freedom, it is natural to assume the readers of Banneker’s letter also
value these rights of “liberty and free possession.” Therefore,
Banneker’s long statement about mankind’s natural longing for
freedom is extremely effective when it is juxtaposed, after a semicolon, with his clear description of the agony, “under groaning
captivity and cruel oppression” the colonists had inflicted upon the
slaves. This statement by Banneker strongly convicts the reader,
Jefferson especially and other colonists of the time period, the slaves’
light to light, face to face with the reader’s morals and sense of
sympathy for the slaves. Banneker in the next paragraph again appeals
to the reader’s “kindness and benevolence” when he asks the readers
to “put [their] souls in [the slaves’] stead” both alluding to the Bible
and evoking more sympathy for the slaves’ condition.
Banneker’s astute essay to Mr. Jefferson was
extremely effective at depicting the abject
conditions of the slaves while confronting the
colonists’ mindset on slavery at the same time it
appeals to the minds of future readers to
understand past conditions and influence future
events because of Banneker’s influential words.
“Wordles”